Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence, and Security

START II

An SS-19 strategic missile warhead is loaded into a silo at a site
near Saratov, Russia, in 1999. After languishung in the Russian
parliament for almost seven years, the START II arms control treaty
was finally ratified by Russia in 2000.

AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS

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█ ADRIENNE WILMOTH LERNER

START II, or the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive
Arms Treaty, was drafted as an expansion of the 1991 Strategic Arms
Reduction Treaty (START I). The treaties between Russia and the United
States prescribed the reduction of national nuclear warheads, delivery
systems, and ballistic missiles. START II proposed to reduce the arsenals
of the United States and Russia to a third of their pre-treaty strength.

The second strategic arms reduction treaty was signed in Moscow on January
3, 1993. The treaty was not ratified by the U.S. Senate until three years
later. In March 1997, at the Helsinki Summit, an addendum known as the
Helsinki Protocol was added to START II and later ratified by both
nations. The Helsinki Protocol allowed for an extended amount of time to
achieve treaty objectives, giving both nations time to implement new
programs for deactivation, storage, and destruction.

START II, with the Helsinki Protocol addendum, called for two phases of
reduction. The first phase included a sizable reduction of warheads and
demanded the complete deactivation of nuclear warhead delivery systems
banned by the treaty by the end of 2004. The second phase proposed a
further reduction of warheads and the destruction of deactivated missiles
and delivery systems by December 31, 2007.

START II especially addressed post-Cold War relations between Russia and
the United States, seeking to reduce the Cold War era build up of arms and
forge new Russian-American cooperative strategies in regard to
international nuclear policy. The treaty called for both nations to reduce
their arsenals to approximately 3, 500 warheads. In addition to
prescribing further deactivation of warheads, START II expanded
limitations on delivery systems such as submarines, bombers, and ballistic
missiles. A main American objective of START II negotiations was a ban on
all Russian SS-18 missiles. The final treaty banned all current Multiple
Independently Targetable Reentry Vehicles (MIRVs) missiles, or heavy
ballistic missiles with multiple warheads, in both nations'
deployed forces. This provision was mainly targeted at encouraging
strategic disarmament in former Soviet satellite nations in Europe and
Asia, and the dismantling of Russian and American "first strike
capability" weapons.

START II prescribed the same rigid guidelines for weapons counting and
destruction as START I. It further utilized the same policing, reporting,
and confirmation committees as established by the former treaty.

START II was once again brought into the spotlight in 2002. Earlier moves
by the U.S. government to amend, or even dissolve, a separate treaty with
Russia regarding ballistic missiles, to allow possible construction of a
missile defense system, prompted Russia to reevaluate their interest in
continuing with START II arms reductions. In May 2002, U.S. President
George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a new weapons
management treaty, the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT).